Current, Former Student-Athletes Taking Mission Trip to Peru
5/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | General
The group includes 2015 graduates Lisa Santroch (women's cross country/track) and Alina Ching (women's golf), returning student-athletes James Gehrels (men's volleyball), Amanda Rowe (women's swimming), Alessandra Arza (women's golf) and Lacey Sanchez (women's track) and former student-athletes Krista (Friedman) Lopata (women's volleyball) and Joel Lopata (men's volleyball).
The trip is being planned through the group Here For Kids International, which was founded by former Saint Mary's soccer coach Randy Farris, and is associated with Kids Alive International.
Santroch, co-President of Pepperdine's SAAC the past two years, is spearheading the effort. She's done a number of mission trips in the past and knew of Here For Kids from her time with the soccer team.
"Rather than find a program that I could do individually, I wanted to find something to do with other athletes," she said. "Being SAAC President, I was in a position to do that. I knew it was going to take a certain amount of time and money to do this, but I figured why not lead and make it happen?"
She began lining up her fellow student-athletes, though that had its challenges.
"Recruiting is hard," she said. "There was a lot of interest, but it's really expensive and student-athletes have a lot of conflicts. Some are in classes now, and some spring sports like baseball are still going. You can't force people to go, you just pray the right people sign up and feel a need to go. I'm optimistic that it will be a really good trip."
The group will spend time at a children's center in the capital city of Lima, and then will visit an orphanage in the remote town of Andahuaylas, located in the Andes Mountains. They will be helping out wherever needed, including light maintenance projects, and facilitating sports activities with kids.
"It's about the people," Santroch said. "The purpose of the trip is to be present and loving and to play with the kids."
Ching, who also just graduated, said: "It sounded like a good way to give back and a nice way to end my time at Pepperdine. I'm looking forward to helping out and trying to change people's lives a little. It just felt like something I'm supposed to do."
The group will also have a chance to be tourists and have a trip planned to Machu Picchu.
Santroch hopes that this becomes the start of an annual tradition for Pepperdine student-athletes.
"A goal would be that this helps our student-athletes grow in their faith and to ignite a passion to serve, and to hopefully come back and spread that feeling to students still here," she said. "This will be an experience that will undoubtedly be life-changing. Hopefully a service trip can be an annual thing for athletics."
